Bruins can’t take advantage of Tuukka Rask’s latest fine performance.

Saturday

Nov 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 28, 2009 at 2:56 PM

Boston’s 22-year-old rookie goalie was nearly the equal of future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur on Friday afternoon at TD Garden. The Bruins, however, failed to support Rask with enough offense, and absorbed a 2-1 shootout loss to New Jersey.

Mike Loftus

For the moment, maybe it can be attributed to opponents: In consecutive games, after all, the Boston Bruins have faced Jacques Lemaire-coached teams of the recent past (Minnesota Wild), more distant past, and present (New Jersey). In the case of the former, Lemaire merely installed the defensive system he used to make the Devils a championship team – and the scourge of chance-for-chance, run-and-shoot hockey fans everywhere – during his first tenure in New Jersey.

If that explains why the Bruins have scored only two goals in their last two games, the next question becomes: How did the B’s turn those two goals into three of four possible points?

Easy answer: Tuukka Rask.

The 22-year-old rookie goalie, who played five NHL games before this season, played his sixth in a row on Friday afternoon at TD Garden, where he matched Hall of Famer-to-be Martin Brodeur save for save, and then some. Rask made 36 saves to Brodeur’s 32, but didn’t win for the fifth straight time largely because his teammates barely scored for the second game in a row, and for the fourth time in his six-start streak.

“He’s playing great for us,” center Marc Savard said after the Devils’ 2-1, shootout victory, which interrupted Boston’s season-best four-game winning streak. “We wish we could give him a little more offense, so he can get some more wins.”

Rask’s consecutive-games streak started with a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Nov. 16. It has been extended both because No. 1 goalie Tim Thomas is battling an undisclosed, but apparently minor injury (Thomas continues to practice and dress for games), and because Rask has been excellent. He has yielded only 12 goals in the six starts; five goals in the last four.

The loss to the Islanders and Monday’s 4-2 victory at St. Louis are the only games in the last six to be decided by more than one goal; four of the last five have gone past regulation.

“They’ve been pretty tough games,” Rask said. “Lots of overtimes and shootouts, so it kind of gets mentally tough at points. You’ve just got to focus on every shot, and battle through it.”

Bruins fans have been hearing and reading about Rask’s potential for the past two seasons, nearly all of which were spent with Boston’s American Hockey League affiliate in Providence. Many teammates, however, knew of Rask’s capabilities long before this six-game run.

“I played with him down in Providence for a year and a half,” said winger Byron Bitz, who fed new linemate Blake Wheeler for Boston’s only goal in regulation on Friday. “The way he approaches the game, you know what you’re going to get every night.

“He’s playing very well right now ... very calm, very even-keeled. He doesn’t get too high. He plays with an edge and he’s really competitive, but very consistent.”

Rask, competitive enough to refer to himself as “a bad loser,” said he felt “awful” about losing the shootout after winning three of his first four this season, two of them during the 4-0 road trip that ended with Wednesday’s 2-1 decision at Minnesota.

“It’s so weird,” he said “because when you win a shootout like we did in the past couple of games it feels great. Then, when you lose (a shootout), it feels like you just lost a big game. But you’ve just got to get over it.”

The Bruins, who were trying Friday to get over the news that they’d lost left wing Milan Lucic (high ankle sprain) for somewhere around four weeks, ended up changing three of four lines. Wheeler, who joined the relatively new Savard-Bitz combination, scored 12 seconds into the third period to match Zach Parise’s second-period goal. Parise and Wheeler then scored in the shootout, but Jamie Langenbrunner won it with a wrist shot past Rask’s blocker.

One thing is certain: The Bruins haven’t had a hard time scoring because they’re too focused on protecting their young netminder.

“Guys are allowed to try to make plays, because he’s been so good back there,” Savard said. “It’s unfortunate we only scored one goal. We’ve got to find it within here to get to the net, and get him some goals.”

Mike Loftus may be reached at mloftus@ledger.com.

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